I’ve heard an analogy that compares people’s personal religious beliefs to a beautiful rose. Some people’s intellectual curiosity drives them to dismantle the rose in order to see how it’s put together. This process isn’t driven by hatred or loathing towards the rose. To the contrary, it is often spurred by passion for the rose and a desire to get more out of it and understand it better, and a firm belief in the dictum, “The truth shall set you free”.

Petal by petal they gently pull it apart to learn how the individual parts work or to examine its raw biology under a microscope. The problem that then arises is that the rose has now been destroyed in the process and can never be put back together and returned to the living creation it once was.

I have read that humans tend to understand abstract concepts only indirectly, through metaphors or allegories. We take an idea such as justice, strength, or beauty, and conceive of a manifestation of it that’s more concrete or tangible in order that we might discuss it and understand it better. Time is money (“you’re running out of time”, “that incident cost me four hours”), argument is war (“I destroyed his argument”, “your claims are indefensible”), etc.

What if the rose is but an approximation or manifestation of an abstract idea? For instance, let’s presume that a rose represents beauty. Beauty itself cannot be dismantled, broken down into atoms, or reasoned away. Destroying every single manifestation of beauty on the planet will not destroy the idea itself nor its power.

But many people are absolutely devastated upon discovering they’ve dismantled their precious rose, and they set out frantically to piece it back together just the way it was before. I think this is usually an exercise in futility, though, and perhaps even undesirable. Have they really killed off their beliefs? Or have they simply made it necessary to seek understanding and meaning from those beliefs on a deeper, more abstract level? It depends, I think.

I’ve heard it said, “Once you’ve caught your parents filling the stockings, it’s impossible to go back to believing in Santa Claus”. If your approach to religion is similarly literal, then you might be out of luck. But if you are able to enjoy religion on a more metaphysical, meaning-based approach, you can probably rebuild your rose, albeit with different materials and on your own terms.

Excellent analogy. Dismantling the rose feels exactly like what I have done. For me, I haven’t found a way to put my belief back together. Maybe I can still appreciate the solitary petals. I just hope they don’t dry out!